Strangely Comfortable

Today I realized something about myself. It started out when I was passing through airports yesterday. In Milwaukee, there was the usual flow of people through the airport. You hurried up to get through the choke points of the ticketing desk and security. You don't have time to really see what all the people around you are doing since they all go by so fast. O'Hare was life with the thumb on the fast forward button. A constant blur that forces you to tune everything out or your synapses will blow from the overstimulation.

Then I reached Nebraska. Everything slowed down, but I didn't notice it since I was so wound up from my travels. I got in to my hotel and finally crashed. Today I woke up and went into rush mode trying to get to the place I was training which was almost 50 miles from where I'm staying. This is the closest national chain hotel, too.

By lunchtime, I was back to a comfortable speed. I went to a fast food place and that's where I made my realization. I was raised in a large city but in a way that was distinctly small town. I hold doors open for people. I say hello to complete strangers and smile as I talk with them. I offer to let people get ahead of me in line because they seem to be in a rush and I wasn't at the time. The people at the fast food place did the same right back and that's how I noticed it.

In Milwaukee, you might find a person occaisionally who will be like that. That's one of the reasons I like to call Milwaukee home. Big city convienience with small town style. I'm not preparing to move out here, but I'm very comfortable here. Of course, as soon as I got back to my hotel, my job interrupted my peace with phone messages and e-mails. I only get a signal on my cell phone around the hotel, so I was free of it for the day. I'm back to being stressed out, but I'm looking forward to going to work tomorrow. Strange, eh?